Almost two decades after the movie took the world by storm, Jon Heder reflected on the iconic dance number that sealedNapoleon Dynamiteas a comedy classic.
WhileNapoleon Dynamite’s classic lines and scenes put the world on notice, it was therandom yet impressive dancingperformed by Heder as the titular character that fans of the movie remember the most. Heder detailed what it was like to perform the number. According to Heder, none of what went into the dance was influenced by director Jared Hess.
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While being interviewed onInside of You, Heder admitted that theNapoleon Dynamitedance was Heder expressing himself. “Every line on the film, Jared Hess wrote, but the dance was all me,” Heder said. He then admitted they did some but not much preparation before performing the dance number. “We did a little rehearsal of the first two eight counts. I just winged it. It was just all freestyle. (The audience) loved it.” Heder then admitted how much it all hit him once it got the positive response that it did. “After the dance, there’s that pause and the audience cheers, and then our real audience is cheering. I felt like a million bucks.”
Not only was the dance the cherry on top of what had been regarded as a comedic hit, but it also played a role in the one part ofNapoleon Dynamitethat loosely resembled a plot - helping Pedro Sanchez get the nod as class president over the snooty Summer Wheatley. The scene on its own isn’t too out of left field since Dynamite had been practicing his dance moves before he did his performance. The most shocking part was how good Dynamite had become as a dancer when he finally had the chance to show what he was made of, especially since he had proved himself to be uncoordinated earlier in his Happy Hands Club performance.
The fact that the dance number itself was all improvisation by Heder goes to show how all-in he was when he played Dynamite.Napoleon Dynamiteitself featured mostly unknown actors, so the movie being an unexpected hit was due to everyone playing their role as well as they did. Heder perfectly captured the moody social outcast, but he added a whole new layer to his performance when he proved himself to be a rather talented dancer when it didn’t seem like he was particularly talented at anything going in.The subversion of expectationsled to the film pulling off a joke that no one saw coming.
While Heder became a comedy star followingthe success ofNapoleon Dynamite, his star ran out pretty abruptly by 2007. Surprisingly, Hollywood never tried to utilize his comedic talents after he played a character still recognized as one of the funnier icons of his era. Granted, Heder didn’t exactly prove he was comedically versatile in his roles following the film’s release, but surprisingly, no one has tried to utilize it since.
Napoleon Dynamitecan be streamed on HBO Max.
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